“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“I’ll make the decisions. I’ll be the one who’s accountable. But there’s no official way for that to happen, and you know it.”
He was right. Salazar would never stand for it. Not for a second. And they couldn’t appeal to Tanner for mediation. But…
“Keep going,” she said, the rusty gears in her mind beginning to grind into motion. She could see a glimpse of what Joshua was suggesting.
It might work.
“If Salazar’s allowed to take control here, Humpty won’t keep playing with us. He’ll burn the house down to fix the plumbing.” He waved his hand to include the entire group still inside the room. “It’s you he’s engaged with. It’s me. And he needs to believe we’re still in charge of the investigation.”
Sariah thought about it. The idea of going head to head with Salazar made her tired, but there was another part of her… a smaller part, but a louder one… that wanted it. And the crushing weight of responsibility would be on Joshua’s shoulders. If something went wrong, it would be his fault, not hers.
She was ashamed of the thought, but that didn’t matter so much right now. Her whole life revolved around shame these days.
“So how would this work?”
Joshua gave her a grim smile and leaned in.
* * *
Agent Salazar talked an awful lot, Had was realizing.
From the moment Coop and Joshua had stepped out of the room, the agent had begun writing things up on the board. Maybe Had didn’t know what he was doing, but there was very little of what Salazar was writing that made sense to him.
It was like the BAU agent was doing all that he could to make his speech unintelligible. Maybe that was the way it worked here, but neither Coop nor Joshua had ever exhibited behavior even close to this.
It made Had feel more than a little bit stupid.
“So, this whole clown op has disaster written all over it. We’ve got an unsub in the wind. That is, if he even exists. Part of the issue here might be the fact that our ex-brick agent doesn’t know how to handle coming back from being on the beach.” Salazar was looking at the board in front of him, so didn’t see that Joshua and Coop had reentered the room.
“At what point did you decide to stop being a dick as a hobby and turn it into a full-time gig?” Joshua drawled. He called Bella back to his side with a gesture, and the beautiful Boxador snuggled into the side of his leg.
Salazar turned around slowly, his face heating up. “What did you say?”
“Need to get your ears checked, Agent? Or are you just slow?”
The BAU agent stiffened, then took a breath. It seemed he was forcing himself to relax. He gave Joshua a barracuda smile.
“I don’t care who you used to be. Keep this up, and I’ll make damn sure you’re out of here.”
“There’s only one problem with that, Salazar,” Coop said, stepping into the crossfire. “You don’t have that authority. I do.”
Salazar took a step back, assessing. “What are you talking about? I’m in charge--”
“No, you’re not,” she said, cutting him off. “I am. And you know it.” She leveled a gaze at the agent that if it had been turned on Had, he was pretty sure he’d dissolve into a puddle.
There was a long, tense moment between the two, and for a second Had thought it was going to escalate into a full-blown fight. But then something extraordinary happened. Salazar backed down.
“Be my guest,” he said, waving his arm at the board. “I’ll be here to pick up the pieces when you take a nosedive.”
Coop just stared back at him and then licked her lips. Her gaze flickered over to Joshua for a moment before she strode over to the board, wiping the slate clean.
Had couldn’t believe what he was seeing. After so long of waiting for Coop to step back up to the plate, here she was, doing it.
“Okay, before we do anything else on Humpty, we need to make sure our own house is clean.” Coop spoke with precision, her tone decisive.
But as she continued, Had felt like something was off. It was too much, too soon. The turnaround wasn’t sitting right with him. She was saying all the correct things, but they didn’t sound like her.
Stupid. Of course it was her. Who else would it be? He shook his head and tried to refocus on what she was saying.
“Multiple times now, Humpty’s seemed to know, with precision, where we were going to be and when it was going to happen. We’ve got a mole.”
Salazar snorted. “Really? Or is it just that you’re predictable?”
Coop turned a look on him that could have dissolved diamonds. “You don’t want us checking into the idea that there might be a leak in our department, Salazar?”
He glared back at her. “You accusing me of something?”
“Should I be?” came the response.
“Um…” Agent Lobo raised her hand, her expression hesitant and more than a little timid. “I may have something.”
Had felt for her. He remembered what it had been like stepping onto this team. Intimidating times ten.
The agent stood and walked to the board. She had some printouts gripped in her fist that looked to be forensics results, and Had remembered that was her specialty.
“I went in to see if I could hurry along the results from the explosion,” she began.
But as she spoke of the bomb, Had’s mind went back to that moment. The sick feeling in his stomach as he realized he was smelling his friend’s flesh cooking less than thirty feet away from him.
“What I found was strange. There was a partial on one of the fragments of the bomb casing.”
“You found fingerprints?” Joshua asked, his interest piqued.
“Well… yes,” the agent replied, but there was something strange about her response. Forensics results were usually either conclusive or they weren’t. But what would cause the reaction he was seeing from her now? What was that? Embarrassment?
“Okay, what’d you find?” Joshua said, gesturing for her to continue.
“There was a match, but it was a strange one.”
The entire team seemed to lean forward, waiting for her response. Agent Lobo seemed to almost cringe back from the attention. Had reminded himself that up to this point, she’d spent a lot of time in a lab.
She swallowed. “It was a match for… the driver of the cab.”
For what felt like a long stretch of time, the meaning inherent in her words didn’t penetrate. Had rolled the sounds around in his brain, waiting for the sense of her statement to land.
Joshua got there first. “You mean that Bilal’s fingerprints were on the bomb? That can’t be right.”
“Wait,” Coop added, her forehead scrunched up in confusion. “How does that even make sense?”
Lobo held up a hand, the gesture seeming to mean that she was asking for patience. Had was still trying to process what she had said. It felt almost as if he was in some sort of bubble, where sounds and meanings took time to penetrate.
There was a buzzing in his ear. Glancing up at the ceiling he realized that one of the fluorescent bulbs was flickering, in need of replacement. He should get someone on that right away.
Lobo’s voice penetrated his sphere, catching his attention, even if the meaning was still obscured. Had watched as her hands did a polite and delicate dance in front of her torso. Her fingers, unlike her makeup, spoke of elegance and grace. Intelligence.
“It appears that the device was intended to be detonated remotely, and that the explosion was accidental.”
“How do we know that?” Remmie pressed.
“Well, it wasn’t connected to the ignition, nor did there appear to be a timer. Perhaps he meant to get you into the car and then find some excuse to get out himself. At a gas station, possibly?”
Letting them out at a gas station while he filled up. That sounded like something that Bilal would do. But he’d make sure it was a gas station attached to some quirky restaurant,
or one that had the best selection of flavored sodas. He was always watching out for some new experience to show them.
It made Had smile.
Then he remembered that Bilal was gone, and the words being spoken around him swam into blurred focus. When his attention sharpened once again, Salazar was in the midst of talking.
“…wouldn’t be the first time some camel jockey towelhead went deep undercover.” Salazar looked around at the faces all staring at him. “What? You know it’s true.”
Before Had even realized he was doing it, he was up and had his hands around Salazar’s throat. The fingers that were squeezing the BAU agent’s neck seemed distant and foreign as Salazar battered at them with flailing hands.
Had found he was on top of the man, who was now lying on the floor underneath him. Strange. What was he doing on the ground?
The sensation of his arms being struck over and over again didn’t appear connected to anything involving him. It wasn’t until Joshua grabbed his thumbs and began twisting up and back that Had come to himself.
That hurt.
Looking up into Joshua’s eyes, Had saw an expression on his face that wasn’t familiar. It seemed made up of equal parts of determination, irritation and compassion.
The former FBI agent helped him stand back up, along with some help from Agent Lobo. She seemed nice. Had was glad she was on the team. Her hands cradled him as he returned to standing, lingering around his waist.
Wait. Why had he been on the ground?
“Salazar, get up,” Coop was saying, offering him a hand to come back to standing.
“That crazy bastard cop tried to kill me,” he said, his eyes wide.
“Yeah, well, he’s not the only one who’s thought about it,” Joshua muttered.
There on Salazar’s neck were red bands that looked like fingers. How had he gotten those? Had he been making out with another agent on the side? Had looked around to see if he could tell whom it might be.
Lobo, maybe? Couldn’t be Reggie or Coop. They didn’t like Salazar. And Had was pretty sure that Joshua didn’t like men that way. And Had himself would never go for someone like Salazar, even if he wasn’t only attracted to the female half of the population.
But why not? Why did Had not like Salazar? There was a reason. Had didn’t dislike people for no reason.
The next moment it all came flooding back. Salazar trying to take over the team. Salazar using FBI lingo to confuse them. Salazar insulting Bilal.
It was all he could do not to launch himself at the slimy BAU agent once again.
“I think,” he managed to croak, “that I need to go now.”
Coop and Joshua shared a look that said he might be right. They moved over to either side of him, cutting him off from Salazar. The agent, in his turn, backed away while gingerly touching his raw skin, his face set.
“I could have him thrown off the team,” he threatened.
“Yeah,” Joshua answered. “You probably could. But you know how things work. When you’re the squeaky wheel, no one takes kindly to it. Even if you’re right.” He winked at Salazar. “Want to try your luck with Tanner?”
Apparently the BAU agent did not, as Joshua, Coop, Reggie, and even Bella surrounded Had. Bella was doing all she could to lick his hand, even while he was moving away. Then Agent Lobo called for Coop.
“There may be more bad news,” Lobo said in a low voice to Agent Cooper. Had could just barely make out what they were saying.
“I don’t think now is the time,” she responded. “Let me take care of Had and we’ll find a time to meet up for you to debrief us.”
Agent Lobo gave a curt nod and turned back toward Salazar. When she caught sight of him, she veered off in a third direction, apparently not wanting to be near him any more than the rest of the team did.
Salazar might enjoy a certain popularity amongst the rest of the FBI, but here, it seemed he was persona non grata. Had almost felt sorry for him.
Then he remembered what the agent had called his friend, and he thought better of it.
* * *
Joshua followed close on the heels of Coop and Reggie, with Bella right behind him. It hadn’t taken them long to get Had situated, but Reggie had wanted to stick around to make sure he was okay.
That had been fine with him. As far as he could tell, the young cop needed the company. Joshua’d never seen Had quite like that before. Usually it was Joshua that ended up trying to take someone down. Actually, last time it had happened, as Joshua recalled, it had been him punching Had.
He didn’t feel so great about that now, but in his defense, it had been back while he was still drinking. The strap of the ankle monitor itched as if it were calling attention to itself on purpose. He stopped, reached down and scratched at it while Coop looked on.
The chafing was worth it. Having the constant reminder that he couldn’t drink helped. Especially in moments like right now.
He really wanted a drink.
It was surprising to him how bad it was. Most of the time, the strong urges came when he was experiencing something extraordinary. Extremes of rage, grief, fear. HALT. Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. But there wasn’t anything like that going on. Okay, probably a little bit of every one of the triggers, but not enough to cause this.
What the hell was wrong with him?
It wasn’t like he was hurt. Or any of the team, for that matter. Well, not physically, at least.
Okay, people had died back in Texas, that was true. And it was possible that it was due to his own bad judgment. But he hadn’t known any of them. They weren’t connected to him in any way.
And sure, Bilal had died in a fiery explosion right in front of his eyes, but that shouldn’t make a difference. Should it? Joshua hadn’t cared much for the man. He’d found him annoying. Kept trying to convince Had that they should use a different cabbie.
But the more Joshua thought about it, the more he felt that tickle in the back of his throat turn into an ache, and then a burning. The more he wanted a Johnnie Walker Red Label, neat.
This is why he shouldn’t be in charge. Ever.
And yet that’s just where he found himself right now. There was an anger in his gut that fed his thirst, and that rage was directed at Agent Cooper.
That was all it was. He was just pissed off. Nothing more.
They got back to Quantico, and Agent Lobo was waiting for them. The Latina reached down to scratch Bella’s ears, and Bella gave her a mix of something in between a whine and a sigh of pleasure. That was a sound that she usually reserved for Joshua. She must really like Lobo.
Bella looked up at Joshua and then back to Lobo. Back and forth between them. Her tail wagged, but also was tucked under her a bit. She could probably sense Joshua’s thirst. It was an uncanny sixth sense Bella seemed to possess.
As she straightened back up, the agent’s face was grave. “So, the other information that I needed to give you…” She hesitated, seeming unsure of how to deliver the news.
“Spit it out,” Joshua said, impatient to hear what she had to say.
Lobo nodded. “When I got the results back on the cab driver, I went ahead and did a couple of things.” She swallowed, glanced down at the ground, then continued. “I put in a request for a warrant to search the man’s residence…” Her voice trailed off.
“That was a good call, Agent Lobo,” Coop said, patting her arm. “You shouldn’t feel bad about taking initiative like that.”
“Oh, no,” the agent answered. “That wasn’t it. I mean, thank you, but…” She took a deep breath. “This was before you guys came back from Texas. Right after I found out I might be on your team. I checked in with the forensics guys there at the Crime Lab in Austin.”
“Look, that might have been a bit presumptive--” Joshua began, but she cut him off.
“They found a hair.”
That seemed impossible. Joshua had been there. The blast had taken out pretty much everyone that was there in the courtyard. It had been a minor m
iracle that more hadn’t died.
She must’ve seen the disbelief on his face. “The bomb appears to have been designed to blow outward in one direction only, to cause the most damage possible. The whole back quarter of the bomb was largely intact. And there was a hair.
“I’m guessing there’s something significant about the hair?” Joshua muttered, but his heart wasn’t in the sarcasm. He could tell that something important was coming. Something they weren’t going to want to hear.
Again the agent nodded. “The team was angry as hell about their teammates who… the ones who were caught in the blast. So they were more than happy to put a rush on the testing.”
Joshua glanced over at Reggie, who was licking her lips. She only did that when she was worried about something. It wasn’t just him feeling the pressure.
“There was DNA on the follicle?” she asked.
“Yes.” Agent Lobo wrung her fingers until they turned white. “There were no matches in the system, but we can tell something about the ancestry from what we got.”
Joshua felt the thirst rising back up inside him, and Bella nudged him, whining as she listened to Lobo’s voice. The Boxador seemed almost as engaged in the conversation as Joshua himself was.
“What was it?”
“Middle Eastern. Female.” She cleared her throat. “I ran it against the DNA from Bilal’s remains. It was a partial match. Family member.”
Nadira.
Shit.
“Phone.” Joshua held his hand out to Reggie. The second she placed the phone in his hand he began dialing. Had was in his hotel room. The kid was a mess. There was no way he was going to head out now, right?
The call went straight to voicemail.
He glanced at Coop, but the BAU agent had gone nonresponsive again. Turning to Reggie, he barked out a question.
“Do you have the number for the hotel?”
She shook her head in negation. Why would they need to call the hotel, when Had always picked up his cell? The guy was obsessive about his tech, and his phone was a permanent attachment. He kept it religiously charged.
It must be turned off.
Joshua punched the name of the hotel into the maps application, his fumbling with the unfamiliar phone making the operation seem to take twice as long, three times as long, as it should have. When the number popped up, Joshua stabbed at it with a shaking finger.
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